The plane carrying America's No. 1 Russophile on Mission II to Moscow circled down at the Soviet capital with an escort of five fighters. On his head energetic, individualistic ex-Ambassador Joe Davies wore the first Panama hat seen in Moscow in many a day. Under his arm he tightly pressed the brief case holding a private letter from Franklin Roosevelt to Joseph Stalin.
No one but the U.S. President and a secretary-typist knew what the letter contained. Before the week was out Nazi propagandists would say that Messenger Davies had brought a proposal for the history-making dissolution of the Comintern (see...